Totally and Completely Fine

by Elissa Sussman

“Falling in love sounds easy, right?” I took a deep breath. “It’s not. It’s work and hardship and tears and pain. The worst thing about love is that you’ll never know what it will look like. And you can never imagine what it will become.”

“Love is a shape-shifter. It will look different at eighteen than it will at forty than it will at eighty. It will feel different. You don’t fall in love—it isn’t something you trip and tumble over. Love is something you need to hurtle yourself into—something you race toward heart first, even if you don’t know what will happen. Especially if you don’t know what will happen.”

“And it’s hard work. Because the truth is that life is hard work. Living is hard work. It’s work but it’s also joy and laughter and stupid jokes and good timing and a ton of luck and a thousand other things that you won’t recognize until they’re standing right in front of you. Sometimes you won’t even see it until it’s gone.”

And I realized that was how time healed. When you filled it with opportunity and people and love.